Big Ben (See No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,23
was the friend to go with me. I was about to do something that was probably going to get me into trouble, but I couldn’t let it go.?He was hiding something.?Something that might be important for me to know.?Like a scab, I couldn’t stop picking at it. I had to know if this was going to blow up in my face.?I had to have answers.
At Telly’s, the closed entryway with keypad access didn’t stop me.?I pulled out my set of keys and opened the door.?There were several people on the lift with me as I headed up to the third floor.?With each step toward Telly’s flat, I wondered what had gotten into me.
I knocked at Telly’s door, and it took a minute before I heard her footsteps on the other side.?When she yanked it open, she was out of breath.? “Hey, you gorgeous slag. Give me a minute.”
“Hey, Telly.”
She laughed. “Come right in. The look on your face clearly says, ‘This calls for wine.’?Tell me, is this a breakup surprise? Don’t tease me.”
I groaned.? “Telly.”
“Okay.?Sorry,”?she grumbled. She stepped back to let me in and then closed the door behind me before she ran into her room.? “Let me hit save on what I’m working on.”
“I’ll get the wine.” I practically lived there, so I knew exactly where to find it.
In her kitchen, I reached into the fridge.?I knew I’d find a Moscato in there, because Telly, like me, didn’t actually like real wine.?She liked the sweet stuff that tasted more like fruit juice than anything. I uncorked it and poured two hefty glasses. It was our shared joke all through Uni.?We’d never be sophisticated enough for the real stuff.? She’d always said it kept her real and then proceeded to laugh at all the wine snobs who insisted they could taste every single flavor and flower.?She claimed that in her bartending days she often served cheap wine and no one could tell the difference.
I was inclined to believe her.
When she jogged back into the living area, she gave me a smile.? “I love you.?And I’m so glad you’re here.?Sorry about the break-up comment. But what the hell? Is this about the mugging Saturday night?”
I laughed because only Telly could say that to me.?Since Uni, we’d vowed to only tell each other the truth.?The side effect of that promise was that now she could read me like a book.
I reached into the pocket of my trench.?I hadn’t even bothered to take it off. The chill from the misty rain outside was still running through me.?That was London in the early spring for you.?I pulled out the drive and laid it on the kitchen counter.? “No, this isn’t about the mugging. I canceled my credit card. The police are not hopeful it’ll ever be found. But that’s not what this is about. This flash drive, can you find out what’s on it for me?”
Her gaze slid to the flash drive, to my face, then back to the flash drive.? “Where did you get this mysterious drive?”
“Uhm… it’s a long story. But I couldn’t read it. I figure you can do some hackery magic or something.”
She laughed then.? “You recognize I can’t hack everything, right?”
“I know that.? But I need you to hack into that.” I drank two large gulps of my wine. “It’s important.”
I stared at the flash drive, wondering what the hell I was doing.?In the last two days, I had been afraid, worried, curious...?and free.?These were feelings I had been searching for half my life. And that energy had fueled my writing. It was like the adrenaline I still carried from that night had unlocked my creative center.
Ever since my mother died, there had been this empty part of me,?and it tasted like dissatisfaction. It was eating at me. It ate away the carefully constructed life that I’d told myself I wanted and what I understood as living.
There had been an edge of danger, a spike of adrenaline, the fear of getting caught. God, I sounded insane even to myself. But I’d felt a little more… alive. And I’d certainly felt that when I found Ben in my office. Like suddenly something had turned on all my machinery.
It was terrifying but also exhilarating. I wasn’t a complete idiot. I knew my therapist would tell me that I was displaying risky behavior.?While I was exhilarated, I was putting myself in danger. And before I took things even further, I needed to know what the hell I was dealing with.